Ransack

Definitions: Ransack

Ransack

Verb

1. Steal goods; take as spoils; "During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners".

2. Search thoroughly; "They combed the area for the missing child".

Date "ransack" was first used: some time around 1250. (references)

Synonyms: Ransack

Synonyms: comb (v), despoil (v), foray (v), loot (v), pillage (v), plunder (v), reave (v), rifle (v), strip (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Imagination	Set one's wits to work; strain one's invention, crack one's invention; rack one's brains, ransack one's brains, cudgel one's brains; excogitate; brainstorm.
Inquiry	Look for, look about for, look out for; scan, reconnoiter, explore, sound, rummage, ransack, pry, peer, look round; look over, go over, look through, go through; spy, overhaul.
Stealing	Plunder, pillage, rifle, sack, loot, ransack, spoil, spoliate, despoil, strip, sweep, gut, forage, levy blackmail, pirate, pickeer, maraud, lift cattle, poach; smuggle, run; badger; bail up, hold up, stick up; bunco, bunko, filibuster.
Thought	Rack one's brains, ransack one's brains, crack one's brains, beat one's brains, cudgel one's brains; set one's brain to work, set one's wits to work.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	I gave you the security codes so you could ransack the lab while those bunglers tried to kill Wayne. (Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker; writing credit: Bob Kane; Paul Dini)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Ransack (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	Ransack your memory for something which Paris has not.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Ransack" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 71.43% of the time. "Ransack" is used about 7 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	71.43%	5	157,705
Lexical Verb (base form)	28.57%	2	245,945
Total	100.00%	7	N/A

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "ransack"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		kontrolloj (check, control, examine, go through, guard, inspect, look over, make certain, master, perambulate, peruse, probe, review, revise, search, superintend, supervise, take charge of, take stock, verify, watch), kërkoj (aim, apply, arrogate, ask, ask for, assert, beg, call for, charge, claim, comb, cost, crave, cry for, demand, dig, dig for, exact, feel, fish for, fossick, go after, inquire, look, look for, looking for, necessitate, nose, nose out, petition, pick, postulate, quest, request, rummage, search, search after, search out, seek, seek after, solicit, solicit for, want), grabitje (abduction, depredation, despoilment, despoliation, hold up, looting, pillage, piracy, plunder, rapine, rent, robbery, sack, sacking, spoliation), grabit (amputate, depredate, deprive, despoil, flay, fleece, loot, rabble, Raven, ravish, reave, reive, rent, rip off, Rob, sack, subtract). (various references)

Arabic		‏فتش بدقة (rummage), ‏فتش (examine, frisk, inspect, investigate, rummage, search, search for), ‏نهب (despoilment, flay, harrow, loot, looting, maraud, milk, pillage, piracy, plunder, raid, rapine, ravage, rifle, rip off, robbery, sack, sacking, spoil, spoliation, stole, strip), ‏نقب (burrow, burrowing, comb, delve, drilling, excavation, fish, mine, piercing, pry, quest, rake, root, rout out, rummage, scour, scrabble about, scrutinize, sleuth), ‏سلب (bereave, depredation, desiccation, despoil, dispossess, dispossession, divest, evisceration, flay, fleece, harrow, loot, looting, maraud, milk, pillage, piracy, plunder, plundering, raid, rape, rapine, ravish, ravishment, rejoice, riffle, rifle, rob, robbery, sack, skin, spoil, spoliation, steal, stick up, strip). (various references)

Bulgarian		обирам (burgle, mop up, mulct, plunder, ramp, roll, skin, stick up, strip, strip bare), претърсвам (beat, draw, fish for, forage around, hunt for, rake over, rake trough, rummage in, scour, search, seek through), преобръщам (invert, keel over, overbalance, overthrow, reverse, roll over, tip over, tip up, upset). (various references)

Czech		vyrabovat, vyplenit (raid, weed out), prohrabávat, prohledat (comb out, go through, rifle, rummage, search, seek through). (various references)

Farsi		چپاول کردن (Maraud), چپاول (Loot, Plunder, Raven), لخت کردن (Doin, Harry, Pluck, Rifle, Rob, Skin, Strip), غارت کردن (Gut, Harrow, Harry, Maraud, Pillage, Plunder, Ravage, Raven, Reave, Spoil, Spoliate), زیادکاوش کردن , جستجوکردن (Attempt, Comb, Fish, Grub, Look, Mouse, Quest, Scour, Search, Seek, Sick). (various references)

French		saccager (ramp, ravage), piller (ravage), mettre � sac, fouiller (rake among), chercher. (various references)

German		durchwühlen (rifle through, rummage through, to ransack). (various references)

Greek		λεηλατώ (despoil, foray, freeboot, loot, maraud, overrun, pillage, plunder, ravage, rummage, sack). (various references)

Hebrew		לחטט (grub, nose, rake, root, rummage, scrabble). (various references)

Hungarian		kirabol (loot, plunder, Rob, to burglarize, to despoil, to futz, to harry, to heist, to hold up, to loot, to mug, to pill, to pirate, to rifle, to rob, to sack, to spoil, waylay), kifoszt (despoil, plunder, raid, reave, reive, to burglarize, to despoil, to fleece, to foray, to gut, to harry, to hijack, to loot, to pill, to plunder, to raid, to ransack, to rifle, to rob, to skin, to spoil), átkutat (have a nose round, rummage, to explore, to frisk, to rake, to rake over, to ransack, to rummage, to scan). (various references)

Indonesian		merampok (raven, rifle, rob). (various references)

Italian		rovistare (root around, rout about, rummage, search), ripulire (clean, clean again, clean oneself up, clean out, clean up, rifle), svaligiare (burgle, Rob), saccheggiare (despoil, harry, loot, maraud, pillage, plunder, prey, sack), perquisire (Frisk, search), frugare (fossick, fumble, nuzzle, poke about, poke around, rifle through, root, root about, root around, rout about, rummage, scrabble, search). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		掻き回す (to churn, to disturb, to ransack, to stir up), 引っ掻き回す (to ransack, to rummage, to stir up, to tamper with, to throw into confusion). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		ひっかきまわす (to ransack, to rummage, to stir up, to tamper with, to throw into confusion), かきまわす (to churn, to disturb, to ransack, to stir up). (various references)

Manx		ronsaghey (beat for game, consult; consultation, debate, examine, explore, forage, frisk, investigate, look into, rifle, rummage, scrutinize, scrutinizing, search, searching). (various references)

Pig Latin		ansackray.(various references)

Portuguese		revistar (examine, inspect, overlie, rummage), rebuscar (fossil, rummage), procurar minuciosamente, esquadrinhar (dub, fish, kike, probe, pry, rake, rake up, rummage, scan, sift), despojar violentamente. (various references)

Romanian		scotoci (comb, ferret, go through, grub, paw, quarry, rummage, search), scormoni (dig up, fan, ferret, Grout, poke up, rake, rout, rummage, scan, scrutinize, search, stir up), prãda (despoil, flay, fleece, gut, knock off, loot, pillage, plunder, prey, Raven, reave, Rob, ruin, sack, spoil), jefui (burgle, flay, fleece, Harry, knock off, loot, maraud, mug, pillage, prey, Raven, reave, Rob, scathe, spoil), cotrobãi (fossick, grub, rummage). (various references)

Russian		тщательный обыск (perquisition), грабеж (depredation, despoilment, heist, pillage, plunder, plunderage, rapine, ravin, robbery), грабить (depredate, despoil, loot, pill, pillage, plunder, prey, prey upon, ramp, ravish, reave, reive, robbing, sack), обыскивать (rout, search), искать (ferret about, fossick, grope, look about, look for, pick, search, searched, seek). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		pretresti (frisk, vex), pretražiti (scan, search), opljačkati (burglarize, burgle, depredate, despoil, hold up, pillage, pirate, rifle, rob, sack, scourge, stick up). (various references)

Spanish		saquear (loot, pillage, plunder, ravage, reave, reive, sack). (various references)

Swedish		plundra (depredate, despoil, forage, foray, gut, Harry, loot, pick, pirate, plunder, rifle, Rob, sack), genomleta (quarter, rummage). (various references)

Turkish		yağma etmek (foray, put to the sack, rifle, rip off, sack, spoil), altüst etmek (agitate, bedevil, clutter, clutter up, depolarise, disappoint, disorganize, disturb, knock galley-west, make havoc of, overset, overturn, play havoc with, play the deuce with, run upside down, screw up, turn about, turn around, turn under, Upend, upset, upturn, work havoc), altını üstüne getirerek aramak. (various references)

Ukranian		ретельний обшук, грабувати (despoil, hold up, loot, overrun, pillage, plunder, prey, rape, reive, scamp, spoliate), обшукувати (beat, prowl, rummage, search), пограбування (depredation, despoliation, hijacking, loot, pillage, pillaging, rape, ravishment, robbery, sackage), переглядати (censor, look over, look through, oversee, reconsider, rethink, revise, run over, thumb through). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "ransack": ransacked, ransacker, ransackers, ransacking, ransacks. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Ransack" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ansack, Danseco, Grassick, Randak, ransackly, Roszack. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "ransack" (pronounced ra"nsa'k)
3	-s a' k	gunnysack, knapsack.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-c-k-n-r-s"
	-1 letter: cranks.
	-2 letters: araks, carks, carns, crank, kanas, karns, knars, narcs, narks, racks, ranks, sacra, saran, snack, snark.
	-3 letters: anas, ansa, arak, arcs, arks, cans, cark, carn, cars, casa, cask, kaas, kana, karn, knar, narc, nark, rack, rank, sack, sank, sark, scan, scar.
	-4 letters: aas, ana, arc, ark, ars, ask, can, car, kas, ran, ras, sac, ska.
	-5 letters: aa, an, ar, as, ka, na.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-c-k-n-r-s"
	+1 letter: ransacks.
	+2 letters: bankcards, cracksman, crankcase, ransacked, ransacker.
	+3 letters: canebrakes, crankcases, crankshaft, ransackers, ransacking.
	+4 letters: backhanders, caretakings, carjackings, crackbrains, crankshafts.
	+5 letters: backwardness, blackhanders, cantankerous, racewalkings, safecracking, tracklayings.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.